RedOctane Games — the company behind Guitar Hero — is back. Well, sort of — Embracer Freemode, which has been much more about layoffs than new IPs these last 18 months, has relaunched the studio, which initially closed in 2010, and hopes to make rhythm gaming the next old-new thing.
For those who connected the dots, it’s probably one of the more minor shocks of recent weeks. Fans of the genre have been well aware for months that another Embracer Freemode company, peripheral manufacturer CRKD, recently and somewhat incongruously announced a Gibson Les Paul controller as the latest addition to its line-up. Until then, CRKD was much more traditional with its products, including its retro-style NEO S pad, the miniature Atom controller, and the superb Nitro Deck and Nitro Deck + for Switch — something which seemed more likely to be its next big step in line with the Switch 2.
Naturally, the RedOctane team leaned into this perfectly planned pairing pretty heavily in today’s announcement trailer:
The studio will be led by industry veteran Simon Ebejer, who previously served as production director on Guitar Hero at Neversoft, then held roles as studio head at Vicarious Visions (Band Hero), before jumping up a couple of grades to VP of operations at Blizzard Entertainment. With RedOctane, he’s leading a team containing both legacy Guitar Hero and DJ Hero developers and new talent.
RedOctane Games has also enlisted the services of Charles and Kai Huang, co-founders of the original Guitar Hero franchise, as special advisors on its (re?)debut title, which will be announced later in the year. The team aims to work on a community-first basis, speaking directly with rhythm game fans from the start and throughout.
For Embracer, which has spent the last year or more attracting much more negative headlines from its restructuring and redundancies, RedOctane Games is an interesting bet on nostalgia — sentimentality I’m absolutely on board with on a personal level. Still, there was a reason that many other players and I consigned Guitar Hero sessions to arcades.
Maybe — hopefully — RedOctane and CRKD hit the right notes together. Judging by their first-ever blog post, you can see the passion is obviously there. Now, CRKD, make that Switch 2 Nitro Deck. And some Rock Band drums.